London : Not Cheap and Cheerful

After a week of stunning hospitality, I have been snapped back into the reality of England: things cost about 2.5 times more here. A Burger King cheeseburger is $3, as is a cup of tea. A snickers bar is almost $2...life, my friends, is no longer free and easy. I will have to spend tactfully and eat sparingly, just a few days until I get to Euro country...then its only twice as expensive! 

Anyhow, my day started this morning at 7am. Everyone piled into the little loner Benz, ready for the hour ride into London. Unfortunately my backpack was a little too big to fit on this trip so it had to stay behind in Surrey, scheduled for a 6pm delivery tomorrow. I took with me only the essentials, camera gear and computer: all 20 pounds of it. Probably not the best idea. I took a brief nap at Dyane's home in South Kensington before hopping on a bus around 10:30 bound for the Vietnamese embassy; I had to pick up my visa. 

With my one errand out of the way and nearly 8 hours of time to explore, I set out into nearby Hyde Park. About 15 minutes elapsed before my bag was starting to weigh on me, I just can't shoot with that much weight on me, it just kills my eye, I take crappy pictures, it's a fact. I stopped by the big lake to hang with the pigeons and other assorted water fowl. There is nothing quite like walking into a group of a couple hundred pigeons and just letting them surround you, cooing. Eventually you hear nothing but the deafening collective "coo coo coo" of the pigeons...just try it sometime.

Moving right along...

I had left the pigeons and began making my way around the edge of the pond when I noticed a little puppy yipping and chasing after a few of the ducks on the side of the pond. It only took a few charges before he went careening into the water after the birds. His owner came running to the rescue, pulling him out of the water as he struggled to stay afloat. The little dog trotted around the woman happily and began to shake himself dry...

As I moved through the park and back into the streets, I realized that it has been almost a month since I shot in a real city. I had to get back into my groove...

By the time I had found my groove, I had also found a neck ache and a frozen right index finger, I needed some warmth. Luckily, here in England museums are free! I decided to pop into the Natural History Museum and see what was up in there...

This is the fossilized egg of a Madagascan elephant bird, it is the largest known birds' egg to have ever existed. This particular egg measures 88 centimeters around its long circumference and 76 around the middle. 

Here's the cool part: It has a capacity of nearly 9 litres - the equivalent of about 200 chickens' eggs. Thats a lot of omelets. 

Elephant birds were giant running birds that stood up to three metres high and weighed over 500 kilograms. Hmm, sounds like the inspiration for Big Bird on Sesame Street if you ask me...

They were all dead by around 1650. Bummer

Well, that's all for now folks. As usual, there are more photos posted on flickr, i'll be out shooting all day tomorrow so stay tuned for more from London.